Saturday, February 25, 2012

Buddhism began to spread to China around the first century and spread widely in the fourth century, so it gradually became the most influential religion in China. Chinese Buddhism is divided into three types, namely Mandarin language families of Buddhism (Mahayana) Buddhism Tibetan family of languages ​​(Tibetan Lama) and the family of languages ​​Pali Buddhism (Hinayana), the number of monks adherents reached 200 thousand people. Today, in China there were 13 thousand Buddhist temples are open to the public, 33 school or institute of Buddhism and nearly 50 kinds of Buddhist magazine.

Tibetan Buddhist Lama, including a branch of Chinese Buddhism, mainly distributed in Tibet Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province, adherents mainly ethnic Tibetan, Mongolian, Yugu, Monpa, Lhoba and Tu with a population of about 7 million people. Hinayana Buddhism are mainly distributed in the Residency Xishuangbana Dai Ethnic, Ethnic Autonomous Prefecture of ethnic Dai and Jingpo, Dehong and Simao Prefecture, Yunnan Province of southwest China. Most of the ethnic Dai, Blang, Achang and Wa are mostly followers of Buddhism Hinayana to reach one million people. Mahayana Buddhists primarily ethnic Han and spread all over China.

Religion Dao as Major Religions of China

Dao religion is a religion that was born and developed in China. Until now the historic religion of the Dao is 1,800 years since the 2nd century AD. Dao religion of nature and ancestor worship, which is a tradition passed down through the generations since ancient China. Dao in the history of religion has a lot of flow, but then gradually evolved into two main streams, each of which is named Quanzhendao and Zhengyidao. Dao has an important influence of religion among the ethnic Han population, the main ethnic groups in China. The number of religious Dao Dao is difficult to quantify because of religious ceremonies or no concrete rules that must be executed by its adherents. Now in China there are over 1,500 religious temple with his minister Dao recorded approximately 25,000 people.

Islam entered China in the 7th century AD. In China the majority of ethnic Hui, Uighur, Tatar, Kherkezi, Khazak, Uzbek, Dongxian, Sala and Bao'an as many as 18 million people embraced Islam. Mostly Chinese Muslims living in Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Ethnicity in Gansu Province, Qinghai Province, Shaanxi Province and Yunnan Province. In other areas in China there are also followers of Islam. Now in China there are 30,000 pieces mosque by the number of priests carrying 40,000 people.

Catholicism for some time into China since the 7th century AD. Now the Chinese Catholic Church has over a hundred parishes or religious areas with the adherents reached almost 5 million people. The Church is open to the public listed 5,000 pieces. In addition there are also 12 pieces of Roman Catholic seminary. For 20 years, the young priest who fostered by the Catholic Union of China reached 1,500 people, of whom one hundred more were sent abroad to continue his studies. The Catholic Church is now in China there are 3000 nuns, of whom 200 nuns vowed to serve God in his life. In China every year there are approximately 50 000 are baptized Catholics. In addition, each year three million copies are printed over the Scriptures.

Christianity entered China in the 19th century AD, and reached its peak after the Opium War. In 1950, the Christian religion among the Chinese hold patriotic activities, and to realize the independent spirit of Chinese Christianity. Nowadays in China there are approximately 10 million Christians, evangelists 18,000 people, 12,000 churches and 25,000 pieces of fruit a place of religion.